Re: Paleoasiatic (was: Favourite Language Group?)

Thomas R. Wier writes:
 > Quoting Tim May <butsuri@...>:
 >
 > > Tim May writes:
 > >  > |Numerals
 > >  > |
 > >  > |Nivkh has specific sets of numerals for the enumeration of various
 > >  > |categories of objects - boats, people, animals, fishing-nets, small
 > >  > |round obj.cts, etc.  Panfilov (1962) lists 26 such sets.  For example,
 > >  > |`three' with reference to people is _t'aqr_; to animals, _t'3m_; to
 > >  > |sweep-nets, _t'for_; etc.  It is noteworthy that the palatalised t'
 > >  > |remains stable as initial in all variants, an the same stability
 > >  > |applies in other numbers.  Thus, _n'_ is the initial for the 26
 > >  > |variants of _n'im_ 1, and m is the initial for all variants of _mim_ 2.
 > >
 > > Incidentally, those 's should be prime marks, signifying
 > > palatalization, rather than single quotes or apostrophes, which
 > > signify aspiration.
 >
 > For me, apostrophes or single quotation marks always mark glottalization,
 > inasmuch as that is the convention used in the IPA itself, and I find
 > the various ASCII-fication schemes to be confusing and misleading on
 > this point if one's background is in linguistics.
 >
I'm inclined to agree, but I was trying to copy Campbell's notation
(which he presumably developed on the fly, unless one of his Russian
sources included the old roman writing system for Nivkh (it's
currently written in cyrillic with 3 extra letters)).